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CRUZ radio stations launch in Alberta just as Ted Cruz is ready to renounce being born there

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks to reporters after he spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours September 25, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sen. Cruz ended his marathon speech against the Obamacare at noon on Wednesday. Photo: Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The variety hits radio format started to sweep Canada a decade ago as stations with names like BOB and JACK lured terrestrial radio audiences who had gone a few years without hearing much of the synth-driven schlock of their 1980s youth interspersed with classic rock.

And while this format helped to improve the fortunes of Honeymoon Suite, Loverboy and Platinum Blonde on the Canadian oldies circuit, some markets have tired of the retro rotation, or at least needed the stations to shuffle closer to the present.

Regina-based Harvard Broadcasting has now stepped deeper into this fray, with the debut of stations in Edmonton and Fort McMurray identified as CRUZ — which appear most distinct for their appropriation of grunge icons Nirvana among the usual suspects.

CRUZ launched about a year ago at 96.3 FM in Saskatoon as a replacement for the current hits it played as Wired 96.3, which meant Harvard already had a rotation in place to bring to Alberta, on other frequencies whose ratings came up short with other formats.

The station in Edmonton, which was previously the adult contemporary Lite 95.7, actually launched in 2010 with an adult alternative format — but gave up trying to find an audience for it within seven months.

Fort Mac’s version of CRUZ, meanwhile, is at the 100.7 FM frequency that previous owner Newcap ran for five years as K-Rock but sold it last year to Harvard. (Fort McMurray was also recently the site of the first new location of HMV to open in many a year.)

The debut of the two CRUZ stations, which flipped their formats in the final week of 2013, coincided with Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas announcing that he has hired a lawyer to start the process of formally renouncing the Canadian citizenship that automatically came with being born 43 years ago to an American mother and Cuban father who were living at the time in the Alberta oil patch.

The effort is generally seen as tied to Cruz’s pursuit of bigger U.S. political ambitions that might include taking up residence in the White House based on stunts like ranting against Obamacare for more than 21 straight hours on the U.S. Senate floor in September.

Had his family raised him in the province past toddlerhood, though, the senator would have adequately fit the demographic sought after by CRUZ.

At least a pair of radio stations will do their best to keep the Cruz name connected with the province — at least until somebody figures out something better to do with all those flagging FM signals.